CW: Brief mention of s*icide @ 30:00.

Welcome to the first installment in our three part mini-series on the Chinese drama, Lost You Forever (Season 1). If you haven’t seen this drama, don’t worry–the first part of our mini-series is spoiler free!

We give some context about the show set up, share some spoiler-free reactions, and wrap up with a game of F*ck, Marry, K!ll. Along the way, we also share all the reasons we think you should check out Lost You Forever–if it hasn’t already taken the top spot on your favorite dramas list.

Parts 2 and 3 of our Lost You Forever mini-series dropping on December 8th!

Show Notes:

Lost You Forever Soundtrack (on Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/album/6opCSvYhh5CiAioySGp0Nm?si=7a6e1432558947d0

Lit discussed this episode:

Love Between Fairy and Devil, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, As If Love Does Not Exist, Perfect Marriage Revenge, Story of Ming Lan, Love and Redemption, Love You Seven Times

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Instagram and Threads @SexLoveLit.

SLL is a podcast relishing the romantic, the sexy, and the scandalous in pop-culture. English academics by day and podcasters by night, hosts Ayanni and Corinne take a semi-scholarly look at why the “sex-stuff” in media matters in the bedroom—and beyond.

Episode Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:16 Opening Banter

06:19 What's Sparking Joy?

15:36 It's Lost You Forever Time

22:24 LYF Characters

27:36 LYF Political Landscape

34:23 What We Love About LYF

Happy Halloween, SLL Listeners! This episode is a special spooky season treat: a Trope Spotlight episode on ~Demon Lovers~ 😈. We’re joined by comic-scholar, friend of the show, and fellow monster aficionado Dr. Sam Langsdale to tackle the deliciously demonic topic. Together, we parse through what makes a demon a demon-as well as what we want from a demon lover-throw in some monster theory, and share some of our many favorites.

Episode Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:30 Opening Banter

02:57 Guest Introduction

12:37 What's Sparking Joy

25:42 Demon Lovers Discussion

Show Notes:

You can find Sam on Bluesky @samlangsdale.bsky.social or on her website, www.samlangsdale.com. And here's a link to Monstrous Women in Comics, too - https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/M/Monstrous-Women-in-Comics

Bonus Treats🍬

As two people who study, analyze, and have a literal podcast about media, we stand in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike–along with their counterparts in other industries/countries, who also deserve fair wages and labor protections–none of the works we discuss here or in other episodes would exist.

Lit discussed this episode: Fionna and Cake, Wheel of Time (Season 2), Glow Up, Wednesday, Love You Seven Times, Lost You Forever, Howl's Moving Castle (Book and Film), Good Omens 2, Fruits Basket, Stuffed - A living pillow romance, Inuyasha, Love and Redemption, The Good Place, Castlevania, Beauty and the Beast, Lucifer, Excalibur, Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast, Monster Prom, Monster Camp, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Obey Me: One Master to Rule Them All, Shadow & Bone, The Witches of Eastwick, Till the End of the Moon, Monsters and Girls

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Instagram and Threads @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music for this episode is “TipToes” by Myuu. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere | https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective; Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

SLL is a podcast relishing the romantic, the sexy, and the scandalous in pop-culture. English academics by day and podcasters by night, hosts Ayanni and Corinne take a semi-scholarly look at why the “sex-stuff” in media matters in the bedroom—and beyond.

This episode, on the recommendation of an SLL listener, we’re excited to do a deep dive into the Japanese Drama, Rinko-San Wants to Try. We get into how the show complicates conceptions of virginity, plays with the friends with benefits trope, and maybe get in our feelings a lil bit about a second female lead who really got under Ayanni’s skin.

As two people who study, analyze, and have a literal podcast about media, we stand in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike–along with their counterparts in other industries/countries, who also deserve fair wages and labor protections–none of the works we discuss here or in other episodes would exist.

Lit discussed this episode: Get Up EP by NewJeans, Pop Culture Happy Hour (this episode specifically: https://www.npr.org/2023/08/15/1193958358/newjeans-is-a-new-kind-of-k-pop-juggernaut), My Dearest, Hit the Spot, Because This is My First Life, Lost You Forever, Friends With Benefits, No Strings Attached, Nevertheless..., Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Sex Education

Bonus reading (aka works cited & consulted):

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Instagram and Threads @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music is “Pluck It Up” by Dan Henig. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere | https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective; Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Recorded September 2023

SLL is a podcast relishing the romantic, the sexy, and the scandalous in pop-culture. English academics by day and podcasters by night, hosts Ayanni and Corinne take a semi-scholarly look at why the “sex-stuff” in media matters in the bedroom—and beyond.

This is the second episode of our two part discussion on the Female Gaze. Since we laid some groundwork and gave some context in part one, this time around, we dive right in. In thinking through “the female gaze,” we ask questions of whom we presume is looking and who is being looked at. We also think about how the gaze becomes more complicated in our modern media context, especially when we move beyond binary, heteronormative understandings of gender and sexuality.

We definitely recommend checking out "E31 The Female Gaze (Part 1): The Origins of the Gaze" before listening to this one.

As two people who study, analyze, and have a literal podcast about media, we stand in solidarity with the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike–along with their counterparts in other industries/countries, who also deserve fair wages and labor protections– none of the works we discuss here or in other episodes would exist.

Lit discussed this episode: Get Up EP by NewJeans, Spicy by Aespa, Her Private Life, See You in My 19th Life, My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Level 999; The Song of the Lioness Quartet, The Immortals Quartet, The Lunar Chronicles, A League of Their Own (TV Series),

Bonus reading (aka works cited & consulted):

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Instagram and Threads @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music is “Pluck It Up” by Dan Henig. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere | https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective; Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

We’re tackling a big topic in our two part discussion on “the female gaze.” What is the female gaze and why does it matter? In this first episode, we establish some context for the term by getting into the history of the “gaze” as a concept, the psychoanalytic origins of the Male Gaze as theorized by Laura Mulvey, and how the oppositional gaze, as coined by bell hooks, makes space for alternative ways of looking and being looked at.

You can listen to "E32 The Female Gaze (Part 2): Complication and Expansion" right now!

A quick editorial note: We incorrectly mention that polo originated in China. Sources consider what would be modern day Iran as the location of origin for the game.

As two people who study, analyze, and have a literal podcast about media, we stand in solidarity with the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike–along with their counterparts in other industries/countries, who also deserve fair wages and labor protections– none of the works we discuss here or in other episodes would exist.

Lit discussed this episode: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, Vincenzo, The Story of Ming Lan

Bonus reading (aka works cited & consulted):

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Instagram and Threads @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music is “Pluck It Up” by Dan Henig. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere | https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective; Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Content warning: This episode contains a very brief discussion of sexual assault from 27:14 - 27:21.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Sex. Love. Literature! 🎂 Since we started the show as English PhD candidates, the two of us have been through a lot. And now, over the last year, we’ve defended dissertations, donned our wizard robes, and officially both become doctors. To celebrate, this episode is all about us. Learn about our research, what projects we’re working on, and what we watch, read, and listen to when we’re not recording new episodes for y’all.

Want to join us in wishing a happy third birthday to SLL? Share your fave SLL episode with a friend who’s never listened before and tag them on our Instagram post (@SexLoveLit) to say hi! Thanks to all of you who’ve stuck around since the beginning and thanks to all of you who joined along the way 💛🥰

As two people who study, analyze, and have a literal podcast about media, we stand in solidarity with the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike–along with their counterparts in other industries/countries, who also deserve fair wages and labor protections– none of the works we discuss here or in other episodes would exist.

Lit discussed this episode: Pokémon Go, Love You Seven Times, Lost You Forever, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Sex Education, The Queen's Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner, Lore Olympus, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, When I Arrived at the Castle, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson & Emily Carroll, Through the Woods, Good Hunting by Ken Liu, Love Death + Robots, Levar Burton Reads, Tower of God, God of High School, All of Us are Dead, Forever by Judy Blume, Hulu's The Great, See You in My 19th Life

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music is “Pluck It Up” by Dan Henig. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere |  https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective;  Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons  Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of bullying in the narrative from (13:05 - 19:00) and sexual assault from (37:21 - 48:50).

This is the second of our two-parter on Netflix’s Sex Education with filmmaker, writer, and scholar Michele Meek! We dive right into the sex with this one, starting with depictions of sex in the show, how we feel about the ways consent does and does not work in-universe, and Corinne works through her angry feelings about Season 3 headmaster, Hope Haddon. 

As two people who study, analyze, and have a literal podcast about media, we stand in solidarity with the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike–along with their counterparts in other countries, who also deserve fair wages and labor protections– none of the works we discuss here or in other episodes would exist.

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music is “Pluck It Up” by Dan Henig. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere |  https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective;  Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons  Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

We’re doing a deep dive into the Shondaland Netflix show, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story! This episode, we talk about the steamy, but bittersweet romance of George and Charlotte, the evolution of the inimitable Lady Danbury, and how this new Bridgerton tale makes space for the complex desires of mature women.

Like most Bridgerton series, this one has a large cast. Skip to (18:56) to bypass the character and series introductions.

A quick note to bolster our discussion of minstrel shows, they rose in prominence and popularity in the mid-1800s and—to be explicit—relied upon mocking racial stereotypes of Black folks. For more information about the history of minstrelsy and it's afterlives in our modern media, check out Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights by Robin Bernstein and Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books by Philip Nel. (And more sources to come!)

Make sure to visit Mav and the rest of our friends @ VoxPop over on their site: https://voxpopcast.com/wp/

Lit discussed this episode: KPOP! Broadway, Suzume, "Flower" by Jisoo, Bridgerton, the novels of Julia Quinn, Till the End of the Moon, Game of Thrones, VSQ Performs Prince by Vitamin String Quartet

Don't forget to subscribe to Sex. Love. Literature! You can find us on Twitter and Instagram @SexLoveLit.

The SLL Theme music is “Pluck It Up” by Dan Henig. What’s Sparking Joy BGM is "Candy-Coloured Sky" by Catmosphere |  https://soundcloud.com/ctmsphr; Released by Paper Crane Collective;  Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com; Creative Commons  Attribution 3.0 Unported License;  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US